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So on the weekend my mom, my sister and I did a trail run of my mini cheesecake idea. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that my wedding food is more of a comfort food style rather than traditional wedding food. So for our cake, i wanted something different. Everyone is really on board with the cupcake cake idea, and i was thinking about other things that i could make miniature versions of, and since i have an extreme fondness for cheesecake, it seemed so natural. Plus B has a really limited sweet tooth, and cheesecake is still something he enjoys, so perfect!

So we made some modifications to make them super mini easy cheesecakes (see what i did there?!). I bought some really teeny candy foil cups from the Bulk Store, and i bought some of the bigger 2″ foil cups, I wanted to see which cups were better. We also made our own crust, rather than using the vanilla wafers. This is the recipe we used for the crust. The challenge really came when we were trying to get the crust into the teeny candy cups without loosing the shape. Our collective brain power lead us to the mortar and pestle that was just perfectly the size of the bottom of the cup. So we smushed some crust in the bottoms of the cups, topped them off with the cheesecake mix, and popped them in the oven. We put them on a cookie sheet rather than a mini-muffin pan. I think the mini-muffin pan is key to them keeping their shape. Although i can’t be sure, because we did really fill the cookie sheet, so it’s possible they could have kept their shape, if we’d left enough room between each cake.

So after a taste test… obviously. We found some things around the house to top the cakes off with. I had some cocoa powder, and some skor toffee pieces, and my mom whipped up some lemon topping from fresh lemons and boom:

We have to work on the toppings for the real deal, but I was really impressed with how easy and inexpensive the whole process was. For our actual wedding cheesecakes, we’ll use a gluten-free graham cracker crust, as we have some people with Celiac attending the wedding and we want to be sure everyone can partake! And they’ll be displayed on a cupcake tower that i’m borrowing from a friend. The top tier will be a carrot cake, at B’s request. And Chowhound highly recommends the carrot cake from Carole’s Cheesecake Company, and there’s one in Yorkville. So hopefully next week i can pop in after work one day and bring a slice home for Brent to critique – he’s quite particular about his carrot cake. And if Carole’s isn’t THE one, we can try a few others on the list too!
So there we go, cake = sorted!

1. created on an online registry from the comfort of my couch using this fantastic, easy to use website: MyRegistry.com. It’s brilliant, you can put ANYTHING your heart desires on there, that is ANYWHERE on the internet. Boom. you can have it all! As a bride, it’s the simplest thing i’ve found as far as online registries go. I’m not sure how the user/guest will find it, but will post back, if i hear anything negative from the other side. I’ll go into more detail about this site later on.

2. Mini-cheesecake trial, completed. Success!
There will be cheesecakes at the wedding! Yay… again photos and instructions to follow…

3. Menu tasting with the Lakeview. One word. WOW… you guessed it more details later.

4. Dresses found and bought! My MOH and bridesmaid have both found their navy dresses, and will be both wearing really gorgeous sparkly gold shoes! Mission accomplished! There will be no more on this… that pretty much says it all! ha. My mom, my brother, and my Dad, all also got their outfits for the wedding! Yay! My dad and my bro are wearing full dress traditional kilts to the wedding, and i’m really stoked about that! And my mom bought a beautiful Jacques Vert outfit on sale for 50% off, and then further reduced by 30%! So if your mom is looking for something special for your wedding, i recommend popping into the Bay.

5. Wedding favours decided, and now i just need the packaging.

6. i also bought and ink pad and address labels for the invites… the address labels are by Martha Stewart, who, if you’ve been reading along expressly said you are not to type out the addresses on the envelopes, and yet, these labels come with an online template for PRINTING ADDRESSES! they’re pretty and gold rimmed. How could i not buy them. Now i just need to source decent weight ivory envelopes and i’m prepared for envelope stuffing!

7. shower date picked!

I’d say that was a pretty productive week! i deserve a beer, I’ll jog it off later! For those that don’t know I’ve signed up to run a 5K in October just a month before the wedding, as a motivator to get in shape, since my gym membership is not being used, out of spite. Don’t get me started on the Fitness One in the Dufferin mall! So anyway, on top of all this wedding planning and summer funness, i’ve been getting up 3 days a week at 7:30 to go for a jog before work. I’m pretty impressed with myself!

Hi Friends.
So my designer tells me my invites are almost done… in theory they should be done by the end of next week, and then they’ll be sent around to the families for approval and then off to the printer. But first, i need to firm up the writing. I was really keen on doing something simple like:

Susie Q
and
Tom Sawyer
together with their families…

etc etc.

But B really wants to have our parents named on the invite, as they are funding this wicked awesome party. And i totally understand, but i really don’t know how to include everyone’s names, while still keeping the casual vibe! I mean there will be poutine, and tacos and sliders at this wedding. It’s not sterling silver and crystal… My google search turned up a Martha Stewart page with instructions on how to word the invite. SWEET FANCY MOSES, why is it so darned complicated? There were 15 different steps in this instruction guide! I just want to say: We’re getting married, come drink and dance with us! The end.

Apparently there’s a billion different formalities to wording an invite, even a slightly informal invite.

So after i gave up on figuring out all those instructions, i clicked on to an article about addressing the envelopes. I wish i could UN-SEE this! MY goodness! Did you know it’s not kosher to print your addresses on a label and slap it on the front? You are supposed to hand write each address. And if you were truly going to be proper about it, your return address should be blind embossed. And are you aware of exactly how to write each persons name in the address? Are they a doctor? in the army? Are they living with their boyfriend? Single? Married but don’t share a last name? And what’s the dillio with an inner and outer envelope. GET LOST. This is too much. I’ve never once received a wedding invite and spent more than 2 seconds starring at the envelope it came in!

So I’ve encountered a few challenges this week…. the first is with the DJ company. Something to know is that we are having a friend DJ our wedding, but we have to use the sound system at the venue (duh) and it’s owned by an outside DJ company who are charging us a technician fee to just have someone on site, making sure our DJ doesn’t blow a speaker. Fine. The fee is not cheap, it’s $50/hr, essentially for an extra dude in the room for the entire night. The owner of the DJ Company is the person i’ve been dealing with and he’d asked me to be in touch with our DJ to find out what he needs. I was at a gig on Friday night and our DJ friend was in attendance, and we were talking about song choices etc (Bon Jovi is a must, and so is Summer of ’69 by Bryan Adams). I asked what he needs he said turn tables and a mixer. Sounds standard to me…. I pass along this message to the DJ Company and check this, turns out, they don’t supply turn tables…. a DJ company that does not have turn tables… WTF?! So guess what. It will cost me more money to rent them. Why should it cost me more money to rent the equipment, when i’m already forced to use your services. You should provide what i need considering the hourly fee i’m paying for your guy to stand around and do nothing for 8 hours!

A DJ company without turntables…

Second challenge of the week, and it’s only Wednesday, scheduling a tasting at one of the potential caterers. One of them, was easy peasy, it’s set up for next Tuesday evening. The other company only does tastings Monday – Friday, during business hours…. I’m pretty sure i’m not the only client in the world with a job, so why would they only do tastings during office hours, when people who can afford their services – work?! So despite their delicious sounding menu, i may not be able to choose them because i can’t get time off to taste their food! Seems silly. Another strange thing about this particular caterer is they don’t have automatic gratuity. It’s up to the discretion of the client … which makes me feel horrible for the staff on site at events because what happens when you work 5 hours at party for a difficult client and they just leave without paying a tip! Most caterers include the tip in their quote. So you can’t forget. But if i hadn’t have shown the quote to my sister – who works in the industry, i probably would not have noticed that the tip was not included, and i could have accidentally been that jerk that stiffs the staff on a tip!

And the third challenge of the week… though it’s a different kind of challenge, will be to test bake the mini cheesecakes for the wedding! I’m hosting a mini-cheesecake baking party this saturday! Results to be posted next week. I’m hungry just thinking about them!!

Today I have discovered so many awesome things on the internet. I’m always impressed with creative people. And today, my mind is blown at some of these creative things i’ve found. Some i wish i had found earlier… like this Etsy Card Shop Sapling Press.
They have some brilliantly funny cards made for asking your friends to be your maid of honour (or in their case, honor. they’re american) or bridesmaid. I did the card thing, but my cards weren’t nearly as clever… mostly because i had to write them myself. but look at these:

Another thing i found on the internet today is this adorable Rice Krispie Treat wedding cake:
Can you say BUDGET FRIENDLY?!
And lastly, i found this Etsy shop called Liquid Courage, and you know those bridal party members in charge of speeches are gonna need a little of this…Anything on this page would make an adorable thank you gift for your bridal party, male or female. I’m considering a few of these for a groom’s gift! i think B would be really into this idea.. and i know some of my bridal party would appreciate it as well! I’m really digging these ones:

I tried my hand at paper flowers last weekend. After a very sweaty walk to the Paper Place on Queen, and then a quick pop-in to the Dufferin Mall Dollarstore + Wal-Mart, I attempted to craft some paper flowers.

While at the Paper Place, i easily spent an hour looking at all the neat stuff they had in there… also cooling down, it was a billion degrees outside and i was in no hurry to head back out. I picked up a few bits and pieces, but most importantly i picked out some Japanese Watermark Tissue to be able to try my hand at these neat roses i saw on a vlog that the Paper Place had posted… for your viewing pleasure, here it is: Wedding Bells + The Paper Place Make Paper Roses.

Since i was in the crafting mood (the mood don’t last long) i thought i’d also give this little tutorial on paper roses a shot. For these i used pages from the billions of wedding magazines i’ve acqured over the last two years.

And friends. Here is the result. (you can see i gave up rather quickly.. this is what happens when drinking red wine while crafting… you get sleepy!)